Benedikt Ley

Supporting improvisation work in inter-organizational crisis management

Improvisation is necessary when planned decision-making as the main managerial activity does not fit the conditions the practice provides. In these cases, information technology should not just automate planned and structured decisions, but support improvisational practice. In this contribution we present an empirical study about the improvisation work in scenarios of medium to large power outages in Germany. Our focus is on inter-organizational cooperation practices, thus we examined the cooperation of fire departments, police, public administration, electricity infrastructure operators and citizens. Our empirical material allows to describe reasons and conditions for improvisation. Our resulting recommendations address the support of aggregation and visualization of information, a necessary individualization of information compositions, options for collaborative situation assessment, requirements for informal and formal communication, and accessibility of information resources.

Jumping between devices and services: towards an integrated concept for social tv

Television and video belong to the most important media in domestic environments. Nowadays, television means more than the classic reception at the TV set, it also provides new manifold opportunities for on-demand media consumption. The technical infrastructure grows extremely fast whereby an increasing number of options of how to use rich media are being offered. Functionalities from the Internet, such as e.g. communication, sharing and other information services enrich the TV experience. The convergence of media is not only visible in broader functional sets at one device, e.g. broadcast and online access at Media Center systems, but is also reflected in the interconnectedness of the device itself. In order to understand the design dimensions for further SocialTV applications, we conducted different kinds of empirical work including a diary study, interviews and creative workshops. Results indicate that several forms of parallel and convergent media usage have already been established. We identified flexible changes between devices and services related to TV and video content (cross-media jumps). We also discussed several mockups for integrated, cross-platform Social TV applications. It turned out that the identified needs relate to both a better interconnection between devices and services.

Information and Expertise Sharing in Inter-Organizational Crisis Management

Emergency or crisis management, as is well-attested, is a complex management problem. A variety of agencies need to collaborate and coordinate in real-time and with an urgency that is not always present in other domains. It follows that accurate information of varying kinds (e.g. geographical and weather conditions; available skills and expertises; state-of-play; current dispositions and deployments) needs to be made available in a timely fashion to the organizations and individuals who need it. By definition, this information will come from a number of sources both within and across organizations. Large-scale events in particular necessitate collaboration with other organizations. Of course, plans and processes exist to deal with such events but the number of dynamically changing factors as well as the high number of heterogeneous organizations and the high degree of interdependency involved make it impossible to plan for all contingencies. A degree of ongoing improvisation, which typically occurs by means of a variety of information and expertise sharing practices, therefore becomes necessary. This, however, faces many challenges, such as different organizational cultures, distinct individual and coordinative work practices and discrete information systems. Our work entails an examination of the practices of information and expertise sharing, and the obstacles to it, in inter-organizational crisis management. We conceive of this as a design case study, such that we examine a problem area and its scope; conduct detailed enquiries into practice in that area, and provide design recommendations for implementation and evaluation. First, we will present the results of an empirical study of collaboration practices between organizations and public authorities with security responsibilities such as the police, fire departments, public administration and electricity network operators, mainly in scenarios of medium to large power outages in Germany. Based on these results, we will describe a concept, which was designed, implemented and evaluated as a system prototype, in two iterations. While the first iteration focuses on situation assessment, the second iteration also includes inter-organizational collaboration functionalities. Based on the findings of our evaluations with practitioners, we will discuss how to support collaboration with a particular focus on information and expertise sharing.

Impacts of new technologies on media usage and social behaviour in domestic environments

Technological infrastructure at home is changing continuously and is becoming increasingly interconnected. Media devices, including the TV set, provide access to the Internet and offer manifold opportunities to consume media on demand. Additionally, personal devices, such as smartphones, also enable flexible consumption and sharing of media. Questions about how these technologies change the users media usage and how these changes affect the social structure of a household, however, remain largely unanswered. In order to gain insight into the adoption of new technologies into daily routines, we explored these changes in respect of peoples media usage in a qualitative long-term Living Lab study. We will present findings regarding personal routines, flexible integration of new devices into existing practices, influences on households as social systems and related issues in device access and collective use. We will highlight potentials and conflicts regarding device shifts and roles; restrictions in device access; social influences in the living room; and individual changes in media consumption.

Understanding and supporting cross-platform usage in the living room

Abstract Nowadays users can choose TV and video content from diverse broadcast and online sources. The Internet many functionalities, such as communication, sharing and other information services, enrich the TV experience. The convergence of media is not only visible in the broader functions of one device, e.g. broadcast and online access through a media center system, but is also reflected in the interconnectedness of different devices. In order to understand the design dimensions for further Social TV applications, we conducted different empirical studies, including a diary study, interviews and creative workshops. The results indicate that several forms of parallel and convergent media use have already been established. We identified flexible switching of devices and services related to television and video content. While the empirical results also confirmed limitations of isolated applications and services, we will present a technological infrastructure that supports Social TV in a more integrated and flexible manner. Furthermore, we will describe two use-cases that show the potential of interconnected design concepts.

New technology@home: impacts on usage behavior and social structures

Studying domestic usage contexts has become an important field in research. Recent technological improvements have made media available on different devices, in different contexts and from different places. The adoption and appropriation of new devices and technologies has led to a more flexible usage behavior. However, even if we know about such a behavior, many questions, regarding how new technology changes the users media usage and how these changes affect the social structure in a household, are still unanswered. We will address this topic in our work and want to provide an insight on how recent media consumption patterns have changed due to the appropriation of new technologies in the home. Based on a qualitative long-term Living Lab study we will present various patterns based on changes in media usage routines and their influences on households as social systems. The results provide a detailed understanding of how the new technology is embedded within domestic life by considering potentials and conflicts that also address further design oriented work.

In-situ everywhere: a qualitative feedback infrastructure for cross platform home-IT

The domestic appliance landscape is becoming increasingly interconnected with different options to consume rich media, e.g. on TV, PC or Mobile with manifold options for additional services. From a participatory design oriented perspective, involving users into the design of new applications related to video and TV is a topic with growing importance. However, current options to provide feedback at use-time are limited to a standardized form, e.g. in traditional usability tests. In order to open the design space for long-term and more creative in-situ feedback, we will address this topic by a concept of a cross platform infrastructure that enables users to provide feedback on different devices in the context of the usage. This concept enables users to co-develop and improve a system over time in a continuous manner. Crossing the boundaries of various platforms, feedback can be enriched in a very comfortable way, e.g. by annotating a screenshot of the television screen with the smartphone.

Designing with users for domestic environments: methods - challenges - lessons learned

When developing new ICT systems and applications for domestic environments, rich qualitative approaches improve the understanding of the users integral usage of technology in their daily routines and thereby inform design. This knowledge will often be reached through in-home studies, strong relationships with the users and their involvement in the design and evaluation process. However, whilst this kind of research offers valuable context insights and brings out unexpected findings, it also presents methodological, technical and organizational challenges for the study design and its underlying cooperation processes. In particular, due to heterogeneous users in households in terms of technology affinity, individual needs, age distribution, gender, social constellations, personal role assignment, project expectations, etc. it produces particular demands to collaborate with users in the design process and thereby exposes a range of practical challenges. The full-day workshop wishes to identify these practical challenges, discuss best practice and develop a roadmap for sustainable relationships for design with users.

Mixed-Media-Interaktion in der kooperativen Wissenschaftspraxis

ZusammenfassungKontextadaptive Systeme basieren meistens auf Beschreibungen, denen Objekteigenschaften zugrunde liegen. In der Wissensarbeit unterliegen physisch-reale und digital-virtuelle Artefakten und ihre Beziehungen zueinander ständigen Neuinterpretationen, die in statischen Kontextmodellen nur schwer beschreibbar sind. Wir explorieren in diesem Beitrag die Möglichkeit, über ein integriertes Management beider Artefaktklassen in einem erweiterten Literaturverwaltungssystem eine Kontextualisierung von Objekten durch die Interaktionen, in denen sie in der Praxis eine Rolle spielen, zu unterstützen.